Music Theory Basics: Everything You Need as a Beginner Musician

1. Introduction: If you'd like to learn how music works, how to write your own original songs, or how to perform the music you love. This is the perfect class for you. Hi there. My name is Frank and I'm a musician. I mostly played piano, guitar, and bass, but I've also experimented with drums, trombone, harmonica, and other instruments. Aside from playing instruments, I frequently create sheet music arrangements for myself and other musicians to perform. While music is an art form and is very much a creative and experimental activity, there are still tools and guidelines that can help musicians with their craft. Music theory allows musicians to analyze songs and understand how they work. This is a very important skill to develop, as it will help you to grow as a musician and become a better songwriter, producer, performer, and even a better music listener. Having studied music theory, I've been better able to understand the music that I love, allowing me to recreate and cover some of my favorite songs, as well as write my own original music. Whether you have some previous experience with music or you're a complete beginner. This class will teach you all the fundamentals you need to know. By the end of these lessons, you will have a solid understanding of notes, scales, chords, progressions, keys, and much more. So let's not delay your passion any longer. Let's get started. 2. Pitches and Notes: Thank you for joining this class. We're going to be learning a lot of concepts that will help you in all areas of music. Whether you plan on writing, producing, arranging, or performing music, this class is the best place to start. We're going to start with the very basics. The term pitch refers to how high or low a sound is. E.g. this has a high pitch. While this has a low pitch. I'm going to demonstrate these lessons using my piano keyboard. We often like to use the keyboard to teach music theory as it's very easy to see the relationship between pitches. However, the concepts that I'm going to be teaching applied to almost any instrument, including vocals. E.g. instruments such as guitar, saxophone, or violin will all follow these same concepts. Instruments such as a drum set or tambourine don't follow these concepts as they prioritize rhythm over pitch. We use the term notes to refer to specific pitches. The names of these notes come from the first seven letters of the alphabet, a, B, C, D, E, F, and G. If you take a look at a keyboard, you will see that it has black keys in sets of 2.3. These sets of 2.3 repeat across the keyboard. Let's start with this key here. You can find this key by looking at a group of three black keys and then going to the second white key within it. This is the node a. We can continue naming the white keys by continuing with the alphabet. So if this is a, this is B, C, D, E, F, G. And then we go back to a. As you can see, this a matches this a because it's the second white key within a group of three black keys. There are multiple A's on the keyboard. Similarly, there are multiple b's, multiple seeds, and so on. Even though these are all A's, each of these A's has a different pitch, which is why some sound higher and some sound lower. The science behind pitch is pretty complex. But put simply, the frequency of this a is exactly double the frequency of the a below it. And this a is double the frequency of the a below it. This makes all A's sound very similar and they blend together very well. This is true for all nodes of the same name, e.g. these are all F's going from low to high. The name of this interval is an octave. If I go from this f to this F, I'm going up one octave. If I go from this f to this F, I'm going down an octave. If I go from this C to this, see, I'm going up two octaves. The term octave originates from Latin, meaning 8th. If I pick a node and count up to eight, the eighth note will have the same note name, 12345678. So the first note and the eighth note, or an octave apart, they're both sees. 3. Accidentals, Semitones, and Tones: I've added a reference tool to my keyboard so you can keep track of the names of all the white keys. Now let's talk about the black keys on a keyboard. Each of these have two possible names, e.g. this note can either be called a sharp or B flat. The term sharp means higher in pitch, while the term flat means lower in pitch. They are represented by these two symbols. The sharp sign looks similar to a number sign or hashtag, and the flat sign looks similar to a lowercase b. So this note can be called a sharp because it's directly above a, or it can be called B flat because it's directly below B. There are certain times when you should call a note one name over the other, but we'll talk about that later. Let's continue with the rest of the notes. This could be called C-sharp because it's just above C, or it can be called D flat because it's just below D. This is either D sharp or E flat. This is either F sharp or G flat, and this is either G-sharp or A-flat. If you want to clarify that a note you're talking about is neither sharp nor flat, meaning one of the white keys, you can call it natural. The natural sign looks like this. You don't usually have to say that a note is natural unless you are clarifying the difference between two nodes. E.g. if I were writing a song and talking to another musician, I might say, try playing an F natural instead of an F sharp. The sharp flat and natural symbols are all called accidentals. So in total, we have 12 different notes that repeat. Let's try naming all 12. A, a sharp, or B flat, B, C, C sharp, or D flat, D, D sharp, or E flat, E, F, F sharp, or G flat, G, G sharp, or a flat. And we're back to a. Now let's talk about semitones and tones. These terms refer to the distance between two nodes. Let's choose a starting note. The note directly above or below it is a semitone away. So this note is a semitone above this note. This note is a semitone below this note. If we start at this node, skip OneNote and go to the next node, that's called a tone. This note is a tone above this note. We can also start at this node, skip one note and go to the next note. This note is a tone below this node. A tone is equal to two semitones. A semitone is also sometimes called a half tone or a half-step. A tone is sometimes called a whole tone or a whole step. 4. Major Scales: Now that we know about all the notes and we understand tones and semitones, we can talk about building scales. Scales are specific sets of notes that ascend or descend in order. The first type of scale we're going to talk about is called the major scale. You can form a major scale starting on any note. The easiest one to learn and memorize is the C major scale, because it only uses the natural nodes, meaning only the white keys on a keyboard. To play a C major scale, simply start on C and play each white key in order, C, D, E, F, G, a, B, and then C again. So that was the ascending C major scale. We can also play it descending C, B, a, G, F, E, D, and back to C. Now let's talk about how you can form a major scale, starting on other nodes. All other major scales will use at least one sharp or flat note. So how do we know which notes to use? To figure that out? Let's take a look at the pattern of tones and semitones within the C major scale. We start on C and then go up a tone to D. Then we go up another tone to E. Next we go up just a semitone, bringing us to F, then another whole tone to G, another whole tone to a, another whole tone to be. And lastly, a semitone bringing us up to the high C. So when ascending major scale is formed by selecting a starting node and then going up in this pattern, tone, tone, semitone, tone, tone, tone, semitone. You can also form a descending major scale by following the pattern in reverse. If we start on this see, we can go down a semi-tone, tone, tone, tone, semitone tone, tone. Now let's try building another major scale. This time we'll start on D and follow the same pattern. If we start on D and go up a tone, we get the note E. Now let's go up another tone. This gives us this note because we skip one note and go up to this one. So what should we call this note, F sharp or G flat? Well, when forming a major scale, we want to make sure we use the letters of the alphabet in order. So we use the D and E. So we need to call this note F sharp and not G-flat. If we call that G-flat, we will be skipping the letter F. So we have D, E, F sharp, and then we need to go up a semitone. This brings us to g. Then we'll go up a whole tone to a, then another tone to be. Then we need to go up another tone, which brings us to this note here. What should we call this node? The last letter name we used was B. So we need to use the letter C here, not the letter D. So we'll call this note C-sharp rather than D flat. Lastly, we'll go up a semitone, bringing us to D. Let's compare the two major scales we've learned so far. C major. And then D major. You can hear that the two scales sound very similar because they are made up of the same pattern. They simply start on different notes. Let's try one more example. We're going to try the F major scale. So we start on F and go up a tone to g, then another tone to a. Then we go up a semitone to this note. Should we call this a sharp or B flat? Well, we already used the letter a, so we're going to call this B flat instead. Now we'll go up a tone to another tone, to another tone to E. And lastly, a semitone to F again. So we have F, G, a, B-Flat, C, D, E, and F. The notes within the scale are called scale degrees. And the first note in a scale is called the tonic, e.g. in the F major scale, we can call f the first scale degree, which is also called the tonic. B-flat is the fourth scale degree, d is the sixth scale degree, and so on. The higher F is still considered the first scale degree and the tonic, because the scale is simply repeats with G still being the second scale degree, and so on. We've now talked about three different examples of major scales, C, D, and F. But you can form a major scale by starting on any note, including sharp or flat nodes. But we'll talk more about that later as naming the notes can get more complex. 5. Intervals in a Major Scale: As we just discussed, the first note in any scale is called the tonic. Let's talk about the relationship between the tonic and the rest of the notes in a scale. We've talked about how the distance between nodes can be described using tones and semitones. However, there is another set of terms to describe intervals that is more specific to the notes functional relationship to one another. We already know about one of these intervals, the octave. Technically, we can say that this C is 12 semitones away or six whole tones away from this C. But it's easier and more meaningful to say that they are an octave apart as it describes their relationship to each other. So now we can talk about the names of other intervals. Let's use the C major scale as an example. We'll start on the tonic C and go up to D. The second note in the scale. We can describe this interval as a major second. So going from C to D would be going up a major second. And going from D to C would be going down a major second. Let's continue up the scale. E is the third note in the scale. The interval from C to E is a major third. F is the fourth note in the scale. The name of the interval from c to f is a perfect fourth. The interval from C to G is a perfect fifth. From C to a is a major sixth. From C to B is a major seventh, and from C to C is an octave. It's important to understand the relationships between notes in this way, because this is the foundation of creating chords and melodies, which we will talk about later. Let's review all of the different interval names that we've learned. When you go up or down by two semitones, the interval is a major second. Going up or down by four semitones, is the interval of a Major third. Going up or down by five semitones is a perfect fourth. Seven semitones is a perfect fit. Nine semitones is a major sixth. 11 semitones is a major seventh. And lastly, 12 semitones is an octave. You can find some of these same intervals in other parts of the major scale. E.g. going from F to G is also a major second because we're going up two semitones, just like when we went from C to D. Another example would be the distance between e and a. That's a perfect fourth, just like C to F is because all major scales use the same pattern of tones and semitones, they also all have the same pattern of intervals. We can see that the intervals in the C major scale match the intervals in a major, or F major, e.g. 6. Minor Scales: Now that we have a good understanding of major scales, we can move on into minor scales. Major and minor scales are the two most common and important scales to know. There are a few types of minor scales, but the most common type is the natural minor scale. Because it's so commonly used, the natural minor scale is often simply referred to as the minor scale. The minor scale works similarly to the major scale. We can build one by using a pattern of tones and semitones. And we can form a minor scale starting on any note. The easiest one to learn and memorize is the a minor scale, because it only uses the natural notes, just like C major does. So to play an a minor scale, simply start on a and play each natural note in order, a, B, C, D, E, F, G, and then a again. So that was the ascending a minor scale. We can also play it descending, a, G, F, E, D, C, B, and back to a. Let's take a look at the pattern of the notes within the a minor scale. We start on a and then go up a whole tone to be. Then we go up a semitone to see. Next we go up a tone to D, Then another tone to E, a semitone to F, a whole tone to G. And lastly, another tone bringing us up to the high a. So in ascending minor scale is formed by selecting a starting node and then going up in this pattern. Tone, semi-tone, tone, tone, semitone, tone, tone. You can also form a descending major scale by following the pattern in reverse. If we start on this a, we can go down a tone, tone, semitone tone, tone, semitone tone. Now let's try forming a minor scale starting on a different note. All other minor scales will use at least one sharp or flat note. To figure out which nodes to use, we simply follow the same pattern of tones and semitones that the a minor scale used. Let's try forming the B minor scale. We'll start on the tonic B and go up a tone, which gives us this node. Should we call this node C sharp or D flat? Well, we can't call it D flat. Otherwise we'd be using the letter b and then d, skipping over the letter C in our scale. So we'll call this note C-sharp. Now let's go up a semitone, which brings us to D. Then it will go up a whole tone to E, another tone to this note. Again, we'll call this F sharp rather than G flat, so that we follow the order of the alphabet. Now we have to go up another semitone to g, then up a tone to a. And lastly, another tone bringing us to be again. Let's listen to the two minor scales we've learned. You can hear that they sound very similar because they are made up of the same pattern. They simply start on different notes. Let's try one more example. We're going to try the C minor scale. So we start on C and go up a tone to D. Then we go up a semitone to this node. Should we call this D sharp or E flat? Well, we already used the letter D, So we're going to call this E-flat instead. Then we go up a tone to F and another tone to g. Then we'll go up a semitone to this note, and we'll call it a flat because we already used the letter G. Then we'll go up a whole tone to this node, and we'll call it B flat because we already used the letter a. And lastly, we'll go up another tone to C. So the C minor scale uses these notes, C, D, E-flat, F, G, A-flat, B-flat, C. Just like with a major scale, the notes within a minor scale are also called scale degrees, e.g. in the C minor scale, we can call C the first scale degree, which is also called the tonic. F is the fourth scale degree. A flat is the sixth scale degree, and so on. The higher C is still considered the first scale degree and the tonic as the scale simply repeats. We've now talked about three different examples of minor scales, a, B, and C. But you can form a minor scale by starting on any note, including sharp or flat nodes. But once again, I'll talk more about those scales later on. 7. Intervals in a Minor Scale: Let's talk about the relationship between the tonic and the rest of the notes and the minor scale. I'm going to demonstrate with the C minor scale. So we'll start on the tonic C. The next note in the scale is D. This is the same interval that we had in the C major scale. So the relationship between C and D is still a major second. But now things change when we go from C to E flat. This interval is called a minor third. Going up or down by three semitones creates a minor third. Whereas going up or down by four semitones, like from C to E creates a major third. Next, we will go from C to F. This interval of five semitones is called a perfect fourth. And we had the same interval in the C major scale. Now we will go from C to G, which is also in the C major scale. This interval is a perfect fifth. The next interval we have is from C to E flat. This distance of eight semitones is called a minor sixth. In C major, we instead had a distance of nine semitones from C to a. C to a is a major sixth, while C to E-flat is a minor sixth. The same concept applies when going between C and B flat. Going a distance of ten semitones is called a minor seventh, while going 11 semitones, like from C to B is a major seventh. Lastly, we have the interval of an octave from C to C. Again. Let's review all of the different interval names in the minor scale. When you go up or down by two semitones, the interval is a major second. Going up or down by three semitones is the interval of a minor third. Five semitones is a perfect fourth. Seven semitones is a perfect fifth. Eight semitones is a minor sixth. Ten semitones is a minor seventh. And lastly, 12 semitones is an octave. You can find some of these same intervals in other parts of the minor scale. E.g. going between F and a flat is also a minor third, because we're going a distance of three semitones, just like when we went from C to E-flat. Another example would be the distance between D and B flat. This is a minor sixth, just like C to E-flat is because all minor scales use the same pattern of tones and semitones, they also all use the same pattern of intervals. We can see that the intervals in the C minor scale match the intervals in a minor or B minor, e.g. now let's compare a major scale and a minor scale that share the same tonic note. I'll use C major and C minor as an example. We have a major second in both scales. We have a major third in the major scale, but a minor third in the minor scale. Both scales use a perfect fourth, as well as a perfect fifth. The major scale uses a major sixth, while the minor scale uses a minor sixth. Similarly, the major scale uses a major seventh, while the minor scale uses a minor seventh. And lastly, both scales use an octave. 8. Other Intervals: All of the intervals that we've talked about in the major and minor scales can be found in multiple places within the scales, e.g. there are intervals of minor thirds in the major scale. In major thirds in the minor scale. Looking at the C major scale, we can see a minor third between the nodes E and G, as there are three semitones between them. Looking at the C minor scale, we can find a major third between the notes A-Flat and C, as there are four semitones between them. Be aware that if you flip the two notes in an interval, you will get a different interval name. E.g. C. To E is going up a major third. And going from E to C is going down a major third. But if we go from this e to this high C, or from this high C to the E below it. The integral is now a minor sixth, because the two notes are eight semitones apart rather than four. It's important to know that you can find the interval between any two nodes, not just between the tonic and a note within its scale. Because of this, there are some other interval names that we haven't talked about yet. One of these is the minor second. Minor second refers to the distance between two nodes that are one semitone apart, e.g. C, and D flat. Remember that neither the C major nor C minor scale start with a minor second interval. They both start with a major second going from C to D. But we can still find the interval of a minor second elsewhere within the scales. In C major, we can see a minor second between E and F, and between B and C. In C minor, we can see a minor second between D and E flat and between G and a flat. Another interval we haven't talked about yet is the tritone. Tritone is the interval of six semitones or three whole tones in the C major scale, we can find this interval between the notes F and B. And if we repeat the scale, we can also see a tritone between B and F. The tritone is also known by two other names that are more descriptive of the relationship between the two nodes. We can use the terms augmented fourth or diminished fifth. Let's talk about the difference between the two terms. The term augment means to make larger. So an augmented fourth is one semitone larger than a perfect fourth. The term diminish means to make smaller. So a diminished fifth is one semitone smaller than a perfect fifth. If we start on F and go up a perfect fourth, which is five semi-tones. We get the note B flat. If we start on F and go up a perfect fifth, which is seven semitones, we get C. So if F to B flat is a perfect fourth, and F to C is a perfect fifth. What is f to b natural? Is it an augmented fourth or diminished fifth? Well, because B-natural uses the same letter name as B flat and not C, we consider it to be an altered version of the perfect fourth. So we're going to call the interval of f to be an augmented fourth. This f to this bee is going up in augmented fourth. And this be down to this, f is going down in augmented fourth. However, if we start on B and go up to the F above it, the naming will work differently. If we start on B and go up a perfect fourth, we get the note E. If we start on B and go up a perfect fifth, we get the note F sharp. So what name should we give the interval of B to F natural? Well, since F natural shares the same letter name as F sharp and E, we consider it to be an altered version of the perfect fifth. So we will call this interval of B to F natural a diminished fifth. This b to this f is going up a diminished fifth. And this F down to this bee is going down a diminished fifth. So to recap, a tritones simply refers to any two nodes that are six semitones apart, such as F and B, or B and F. But there are two other names for the tri-tone that are more specific about the relationship between the two nodes, F and the B above it, or an augmented fourth apart, while B and the F above it, or a diminished fifth apart. We can also see tritones in minor scales, e.g. in the G minor scale, there is a diminished fifth between the nodes a and E flat. And if we repeat the scale, we can see an augmented fourth between E-flat in a. When working with intervals, it's important to use the correct note naming. E.g. if we start on a and want to go up a major sixth, we will count up nine semitones, giving us the note F sharp or G flat. We need to make sure that we use the correct name for this note. We can figure this out by simply following the order of the alphabet. So let's start on a and see what the sixth letter in the sequence is. A is first, b is second, then C, D, E, and then F is the sixth letter in the sequence. This means that whenever we go a sixth above a, whether it's a major sixth or minor sixth, we must use the letter F. So a major sixth above a is F sharp, G flat. Let's try another example. If we start on B and wanted to go down a minor seventh, we will count down ten semitones. This gives us the note C sharp or D flat. To figure out which note name we should use, we'll start on B and figure out which letter is seven letters below. So B is first, a is second, then G, F, E, D, and then C is the seventh letter in the sequence. This means that whenever we go a seventh below B, whether it's a major seventh or a minor seventh, we must use the letter C. So a minor seventh below B is C-sharp, not D-flat. You will often hear musicians talk about intervals without mentioning if they're referring to the interval above or the interval below the starting note. In this situation, you can assume they're referring to the interval above e.g. if someone says, what is the perfect fifth of C, they're referring to the perfect fifth above C, which is G. It's important to remember that an interval above a node is different than the same interval below it. A perfect fifth above C is G, but a perfect fifth below C is F. 9. Chords: By using the notes within the scale, we can form cords. Accord refers to a set of multiple notes being played together at the same time. The most common type of chord is a triad. The term triad simply refers to a chord consisting of three different nodes. Most commonly a root node, a third, and a fifth. To form a triad, choose a note to start on. This will be called the root. Let's choose D as an example. Now we're going to add a third on top of it. Let's try adding the major third of D. So we'll go up four semitones and see that the major third is F-sharp. Now we'll add the perfect fifth of D. So let's go up seven semitones from D, and we get a. So now we can play the D major triad, which is also known as the D major chord. We call this chord D major because the root note is D. And the third we used is the major third. Now let's try forming a D minor chord. So let's start with D as our root. And the minor third, which is three semitones up, giving us f. And then add the perfect fifth, which is still a. Now we have the D minor chord. We can do this using any node as our root node. Let's use G as our root. Note this time, to make a G major chord, we'll add the major third of g, which is B. Then add the perfect fifth, which is D. To make a G minor chord, we'll start with g at the minor third, B-flat, and then add the perfect fifth, D. Listen to the difference in the way a major chord sounds compared to a minor chord. A major chord is usually described as sounding bright and happy, while minor chords are usually perceived as being dark and sad. Chord quality refers to what type of chord a chord is, such as major, minor or other types we haven't discussed yet. E.g. the chord quality of the E major chord would be major. Major chords are often referred to without using their full name. E.g. I. Might refer to a C major chord as C major C chord, or even just see if I was playing with another musician. And they asked me what cord they should play, I could simply respond C or F. And they would know that I'm talking about a C major chord or an F major chord. Minor chords, however, must always be referred to by using their chord quality. E.g. a. C minor chord can be referred to as C minor. Chords are commonly represented with symbols, e.g. a, C major chord is most commonly represented simply with a capital C. You may also sometimes see it represented as a capital C and capital M, a capital C, and lowercase letters m, a j, or a capital C with a triangle. Although these are much less common. C minor is usually represented with a capital C and a lowercase m. You may also sometimes see it represented as a lowercase c. A capital C with lowercase letters MIN, or a capital C with a minus sign. But again, these are much less common. 10. Chords Within Scales: Within any scale, either major or minor, there are seven different chords that we can form. Let's try building all seven chords in the C major scale. The first note in the scale, also known as the tonic, is C. So let's make a chord using C as the root node. We need to check which third we should use. The minor third of C is E flat, while the major third of C is E. We only want to use notes that are within the C major scale. If we check the notes that are in C major, we can recall that this scale only uses the natural notes, no sharp or flat nodes. So in this case, we're going to use the major third of C, which is E, because the note E belongs in our scale. Now let's find the perfect fifth of C, which is seven semitones away. The perfect fifth of C is G, which fits into our scale. The first chord we can make within the C major scale is a C major chord. This is the tonic chord. The tonic chord is the chord made using the tonic note as the root. Since we are using the C major scale in this case, C is the tonic note. The C major chord is the tonic chord. Now let's form a chord using the second scale degree as our root note. The second scale degree in the C major scale is d. Now let's see if we should use the major or minor third of d. The minor third of D is f, and the major third of D is F-sharp. While we know that the C major scale doesn't contain F sharp, but it does contain F. So we'll use that. Then we'll use the perfect fifth of D, which is a. The second chord in the C major scale is the D minor chord. You may have noticed that we're following a pattern here. The first chord, C major, used the first, third and fifth scale degrees, C, E, and G. The second chord, D minor, used the second, fourth, and sixth scale degrees, D, F, and a. We are essentially forming cords by skipping every other scale degree. It's important not to get confused between scale degrees and intervals. D, F, and a are the second, fourth, and sixth scale degrees in the C major scale. But d and f are still a minor third apart. And D and a are still a perfect fifth apart. Let's try making the next chord in the C major scale using e as our root node. This time, we'll skip F, use G, skip a, end-use B. We now have the notes E, G, and B, the third, fifth, and seventh scale degrees. This forms an E minor chord as g is the minor third of our root node, E, and B is the perfect fifth of E. We can repeat the scale to continue forming more chords. Next, we'll use F, a, and C, which makes an F major chord because a is the major third of F and C is the perfect fifth of f. Our next chord we'll use G, B, and D, making a G major chord. Then we'll use a, C, and E making an a minor chord. The final chord, which we'll use B as the root note, is a bit different. If we follow the pattern here, the next chord uses the nodes B, D, and F. B is the root, and D is a minor third above B. So at first glance, it seems like this should be called a B minor chord. However, all the other chords so far have used a perfect fifth above the root. But the perfect fifth of B is actually F sharp, which isn't part of this scale. F natural is the diminished fifth of B. As a result, the chord consisting of B, D, and F is called B diminished. Any chord that has a minor third and diminished fifth above the root is called the diminished chord. Rather than major or minor. Seven chords we can make from the C major scale are C major, D minor, E minor, F major, G major, a minor, and B diminished. Diminished chords are represented either with DKIM, written in lowercase letters, or with a small superscript circle, e.g. the C diminished chord can be represented as capital C, lowercase DIMM, or capital C with a small circle. Less commonly, you may see it represented as C minor with flat five in parentheses. So we've built all the chords in the C major scale. Now let's try building all the chords in a different major scale, such as D. We're going to follow the same pattern as we did with the C major scale. The first, third, and fifth scale degrees, or D, F-sharp and a, this gives us a D major chord, because F sharp is a major third above D, and a is a perfect fifth above D. So in the D major scale, D is our tonic note. In D major is our tonic chord. The second, fourth, and sixth scale degrees, or E, G, and B. This gives us an E minor chord. The third, fifth, and seventh scale degrees are F-sharp and C-sharp. This gives us the chord F-sharp minor, because a is a minor third above F-sharp, and C-sharp is a perfect fifth above F-sharp. Then we have G, B, and D. Making a G major chord. We can repeat the scale to get a C sharp and E making an a major chord. Then we have B, D, and F sharp, making a b minor chord. And lastly, C-sharp, E and G, giving us a C sharp diminished chord. So the chord is, we can make from the D major scale, are D major, E minor, F-sharp minor, G major, a major, B minor, and C sharp diminished. As you can see, if we compare the chords from the C major scale in D major scale, the courts follow the same pattern. The tonic chord is major than there are two minor chords followed by two major chords, another minor chord, and then a diminished chord. All major scales will give us the same pattern of chords. We can build the chords in a minor scale in the same way that we built chords in the major scale. Let's use the C minor scale as an example. C, E flat, and G gives us a C minor chord. C minor is our tonic chord, D, F, and a flat give us a D diminished chord. E flat, G, and B flat give us an E flat major chord. F, A-flat, and C make F minor. Let's repeat the scale and then we can use the notes G, B-flat, and D to make a G minor chord, E-flat, C in E-flat, A-flat major. And lastly, B-flat, D and F make a B flat major chord. So the chord is, we can make from the C minor scale, are C minor, D diminished, E flat major, F minor, G minor, A-flat major, and B-flat major. Let's compare the chords from the C minor scale with another minor scale like B minor. The tonic chord is minor. Then the second chord is diminished. The next chord is major, followed by two minor chords, and then two major chords. All minor scales share this same pattern of chords. 11. Chord Progressions: The term melody refers to the part of a song that is most at the forefront. It's the part that you would sing or hum along to. In most popular music, the melody is performed by the vocals, although it could also be performed instrumentally. E.g. I. Could sing the melody of Old McDonald. Old McDonald had a farm EI, EI 0, or I could play it on the keyboard. While the melody is more in the foreground, chords are used more in the background of a song. They provide structure for the melody to shine in front of, and they dictate the direction the song is moving in. E.g. I. Can sing Old McDonald while playing chords that work with the melody. Oh, McDonald had a e I 0. A chord progression refers to the chords used in a song and the order they're played in. The chord progression of Old McDonald is F, B flat, F, c, F. This is a fairly simple progression as it only uses three different chords. Let's take a look at the chord progression in a popular song. This is the chorus of grenade by Bruno Mars. I'd catch a grenade thrown by hand on a blade. For this progression of four chords, repeats for the entire course. Other songs may use a longer chord progression rather than repeating a shorter one multiple times. Take a look at the chord progression in aversive can't help falling in love by Elvis Presley. Why I always say Only fools. But I can and falling in love. Most songs will use different progressions for different parts of the song. This will help the song sound more dynamic and less repetitive. Let's see how the chord progression in the chorus of can't help falling in love differs with the progression we just heard in the verse. Like a river flows surely to this C, darlings. So we'd goals. Some things meant to be. This progression uses some repetition by going between F-sharp minor in C-Sharp a few times, but it breaks that pattern at the end. This progression in the chorus then brings us to the next verse, which uses the Vs progression again. 12. Keys: The word keys can refer to the physical keys that are on a piano or keyboard. But the term keys also has another musical meaning that applies to any instrument in any song. The key of a song is determined by the court that makes the song feel resolved. And at rest. Listen to how this chord progression and Melody build intention. And then finally bring us a sense of resolution and completeness. The chord progression brought us to a C major chord. And when we heard this, we could feel that all the tension had been resolved. We arrived home. This means that this song is in the key of C major. The C major chord is where we feel resolved. All the other chords I played provide a different levels of tension and lead us toward our resolution. The key of the song usually corresponds to the notes and chords of a specific scale. E.g. a. Song in the key of C major usually uses notes and chords from the C major scale. The chord progression I just showed you, only used for courts. And they are all found within the C major scale. If you'd like to try building a simple chord progression of your own, try choosing a scale and only use chords from within that scale. This will ensure that all of the chords sound good together. Let's revisit the verse of can't help falling in love by Elvis Presley. This song is in the key of D major. Listen to how we feel resolved when we conclude on the D major chord. Why is, say, only fools? But I can and falling in love with. All of the chords in that progression are chords that belonged to the D major scale and therefore belong in the key of D major. Most songs only use notes and chords that belong within their key. But it's important to understand that songs can also use notes and chords that don't belong within the key. The key of the song isn't defined by what scale it corresponds to, but by what chord brings the song a sense of resolution? E.g. the verse of can't help falling in love only uses chords that belong in the key of D major. The Chorus, however, uses the chords be major and C-sharp major. These two curves don't belong within the key because the D major scale uses B minor in C sharp diminished chords. But even though this progression uses some chords that don't belong within the key, the song is still in the key of D Major because the D major chord is where the song feels resolved. The other chords are used strategically to add tension and interests before returning to the tonic chord of D major. Take another listen to this progression. Like river flows surely to this C, darling. So we'd go, some things meant to be all of the chords are used strategically and in a specific order so that they don't feel out of place. And we are still lead back nicely to the D major chord. The notes and chords that belong in a scale or key are called diatonic. While notes and chords that don't belong are called chromatic. So in the key of D-major, or when using the D major scale, these notes and chords are diatonic, while any notes or cords not shown here would be considered chromatic. Creating a chord progression that uses chromatic notes and chords can be a pretty complex task, as it can easily make the progression sound wrong. Musicians must choose chromatic notes and chords with careful consideration to make sure that the chord progressions still works nicely. This is why many popular songs use chord progressions that are completely diatonic. Now let's talk about relative scales and keys. You may recall that the C major scale begins on C and uses all of the natural notes. You may also recall that the a minor scale begins on a and uses all of the natural nodes. So these two scales used the exact same notes. The only difference is whether we start on C or a. As a result, these two scales also form the exact same courts. But with C major, the C major chord is the tonic chord. And with a minor, the a minor chord is the tonic chord. There was a name for this relationship between scales. The relative minor scale of C major is a minor. The relative major scale of a minor is C major. This also means that the relative minor key of C major is a minor, and the relative major key of a minor is C major. Scale in key has a relative counterpart. To find the relative minor of a major scale or key, we simply look at the sixth scale degree, e.g. if we want to find the relative minor of F major, we will look at the sixth note in the F major scale, which is the note D. This means that D minor is the relative minor of F Major. F major is the relative major of D minor. Both scales and keys use the same notes and chords, but have different tonics. To find the relative major of a minor scale or key, simply look at the third scale degree, e.g. if we want to find the relative major of E minor, we will look at the third note in the E minor scale, which is g. This means that G major is the relative major of E minor, and E minor is the relative minor of G major. Both scales and keys use the same notes and chords, but have different tonics. 13. Scales Starting on Sharps or Flats: So far, we've only looked at scales that start on a natural note, such as c or a. However, we can also build scales using a sharp or a flat note as the tonic. To build these scales, we use the same technique that we used for scale starting on a natural note. The only difference is that we need to decide which name to give the tonic. Let's try forming a major scale using this note as our tonic. Should we call this C sharp or D flat? Well, let's try using D flat and see how it works. Then we can try it again using C-sharp instead. So we start with D flat and go up one tone. Do we call this D sharp or E flat? Well, we can't call this D-sharp because we already used the letter D. So we will call this E-flat. Now will go up another tone to F, then a semitone to G flat, then a tone to A-Flat, a tone to B-flat, another tone to see, and finally, a semitone to the high D flat. So we were able to successfully form the major scale by calling our tonic D flat. Now let's try it again. But this time we'll call the tonic C-sharp instead. If we start on C-sharp and go up one tone, we get this note. We can't call this E-flat because we haven't used the letter D yet. So we have to call this note D-sharp. Next we'll go up one tone, bringing us to f. But we can't jump straight to F because we haven't used the letter E yet. So what do we do? Well, technically, F is the note immediately above E. This means that in this situation, we can call this node E Sharp instead. Now we've managed to keep the letter names in order. Let's continue. From this note. We need to go up a semitone. We'll call this note F sharp to keep with the order of letters. Next, we'll go up a tone to G-sharp. In a tone to a sharp. Now we need to go up another tone to this node. But we can't call this C because we need to use the letter b first. So we're going to call this note B-sharp because it's the note immediately above the natural. Lastly, we'll go up a semitone, bringing us to C-sharp. We managed to form the major scale, starting on either D-flat or C-Sharp. Both of them worked. But using C-sharp made the naming more difficult as it forced us to rename some of the natural notes. The D-flat major scale used 12345 flat notes, while the C-sharp major scale used 1234567 sharp notes. Keep in mind that we don't count the flats or sharps on the high tonic notes as well, because there's simply repeats of the low tonic notes. So even though both scales work, the D-flat major scale is usually preferred as it's easier to read and understand. Different names for the same note. Scale, key or cord are called enharmonic equivalents, e.g. C-Sharp in D-flat or different names, but they refer to the same note. Likewise, the scale and key of C sharp major use the same notes as the scale and key of D-flat major. They simply use different note names. This means that these two scales and keys are enharmonic equivalent. Additionally, the Chord C-sharp and D-flat, or in harmonically equivalent as they use the same notes, but simply call them by different names. Now let's choose another non-natural note and try forming a major scale. We can either call this node a sharp or B flat. Let's try calling it B flat first. So we go up a tone to see a tone to D, a semitone to E-flat, a tone to F, a tone to another tone to a, and then a semi-tone to B-flat. That worked pretty easily. We formed the B-flat major scale using two flat notes. Now let's try forming the major scale, but start with the name A-Sharp instead. So we'll go up one tone from a sharp and get this note. But we can't call it C because we need to use the letter b first. So we'll call this B sharp. So starting with the name a sharp is already more complicated than when we started with B-flat. Let's continue. We need to go up one tone from B-sharp, which gives us D. But we need to use the letter C first. So what can we call this note? Technically, we can call this note C double sharp. Just like how C-sharp means one semitone above C-natural. See double sharp means two semitones above C-natural. The double sharp sign looks like a stylized x. Using double sharps in a scale can get pretty confusing and unnecessarily complicated. For this reason, the a sharp major scale is not used. The B-flat major scale is always used instead, as it only uses two flattened notes. And it's easy to understand. While the a sharp major scale would use for sharp notes in three double sharp notes. Any major or minor scale that would require the use of a double sharp or double flat note is not used. If we wanted to form a major scale on this note, we would call it a flat, not G-sharp, as that scale would require the use of double sharps. The same applies to a major scale. On this note, we would call it E flat, rather than D-sharp as a D-sharp major scale would require double sharps. Lastly, for the major scale starting on this note, we could call it either F sharp or G flat, as neither of them require double sharps or flats. The F-sharp major scale uses six sharps, while the G flat major scale uses six flats. For this reason, they are equally easy to read and understand, and one is not preferred over the other. The major scale starting on non-natural notes are as follows. C-sharp major or D flat major, with D-flat major being preferred. E-flat major, F-sharp major, or G-flat major. A-flat major in B-flat major. Minor scale, starting on non-natural notes, work in the same way. Scales that require double sharps or double flats are not used. E.g. the D E-flat minor scale would use six flats and one double flat. So instead, we only use the C-sharp minor scale, which uses four sharps. As a result, the minor scales we can form by starting on non-natural nodes are as follows. C-sharp Minor, D-sharp minor, or E-flat minor. Both are equally easy to read and understand. F-sharp minor, G-sharp minor, or A-flat minor, with G-sharp minor being preferred as it uses only five sharps rather than seven flats. And lastly, a sharp minor or B flat minor. B-flat minor being preferred as it only uses five flats rather than seven sharps. It can be hard to remember all of the scales that work and the ones that don't. But as a helpful tip, remember that when forming a major scale starting on a non-natural note, we can always use a flat note name for the tonic, and only sometimes use a sharp note name. And when forming a minor scale starting on a non-natural note, we can always use a sharp note name for the tonic and only sometimes use a flat note name. Every scale and key has a relative scale and key. Let's take a look at a list of all the major and minor scales and keys to see how they relate to each other. Most of the relationships between the scales are pretty straightforward. E.g. E. Major in C-sharp minor are relative to each other. Scales and keys that have two different options for naming also have two different relative scales and keys. E.g. the relative minor of F-sharp major would be D-sharp minor, but the relative minor of G flat major would be E-flat minor. One example that may be a little confusing is the last one on the list. It says that we can either use B major or C-flat major. This is because technically we can form a major scale starting on the note B, but call it C flat instead. This gives us a C flat major scale, which uses seven flat nodes. C flat, D flat, E flat, F, A-flat, G-flat, A-flat, B-flat, C-flat. Obviously, using a regular be major scale is easier and much more common. But the C flat major scale is still possible. So the relative minor of D major is G-sharp minor, while the relative minor of C flat major is A-flat minor. 14. Class Project: So we've learned quite a bit of music theory in this class. First we learn the names of all the nodes. Then we talked about the difference between semitones and tones and how you can use them to form major and minor scales. After that, we learned about the names of intervals between notes and how you can use those intervals to form different courts. Then we discussed how chords are used and explored some examples of chord progressions in popular songs. We learned about what defines the key of the song and how all keys and scales have a relative major or minor. Lastly, we explored scale starting on sharps and flats, and how to properly name the notes. Now it's time to take a look at our class project. I've created a worksheet that reviews everything that we've learned. This worksheet will test your knowledge to make sure that you've understood all of the concepts. You can type the answers directly into the fillable PDF. After completing the worksheet, you can upload it to a service like Google Drive. Then come back to this Skillshare class and submit the link to your project. By clicking on Create Project. I can then take a look and give you feedback. I'd like to thank you for joining my class. There is so much more in the world of music theory that will help you become an even better musician. But the foundational knowledge you learned in this class will definitely help you with the music you writer, produce, and help you better understand the music you perform and listen to. Remember that music theory is not a giant set of rules that restrict musicians, but a helpful tool that provides insight into why some things may work and why other things may not. So with that in mind, take what you've learned from this class and continue exploring music. Thanks again and all the best.